It turns out that while I dislike holidays that are centered around food and food consumption, I really really like gravy. And when I don't get my promised gallon of brown goo, I feel incomplete.
Yesterday, Thanksgiving, the BF fell ill. Two nights before, when we were at my parents house for a small pre-thanksgiving Japanese feast of wild mushroom miso soup, sashimi hand rolls and rib eye, the BF was sneezing and dripping. He blamed my cat of course. But it was not her. She hadn't been anywhere near his nose. I didn't want to say, "maybe you should put on a sweatshirt since you are wearing only a t-shirt." He is the type to cut off his nose to spite his face. I realize this. And if I were clever enough, I could get it to work for me, rather than against me. I need to reverse psyche him somehow.
Right, yesterday, the BF sniffled, dripped and sneezed his way through the morning while I did my prep for the two dips and home made crusty bread. I was going to make a spinach and artichoke dip, then a hot crab dip. Oh, the joys of lump crab and cream cheese. The joy of which I have been denied. I have a whole pound of lump crab. The BF doesn't eat crab. I am not going to make a whole pound of crab dip to be eaten by myself. Well. I could. I have some nice Cambazola cheese in the fridge, with some crusty bread. It could be very nice. But if I ate all of that, I would die of over-stuff-ness. I would literally go blind from the happiness of eating a pound of lump crab. Only kings and emperors get to eat pounds of deshelled lump crab. And I am no king. Right around noon, the BF pulls the plug on our Thanksgiving plans. He calls up our friends and tells them we can't make it. No turkey. No mashed potatoes. NO GRAVY. Did you hear me? I said I don't get any gravy! All year long, I look forward to this stupid holiday so I can pour gravy over every thing on my plate. And this year, it's been pulled out from underneath my feet. I managed to pull together a spinach stuffed chicken breast with roasted oyster mushrooms, spinach stuffed mushrooms, and some wild mushroom ravioli made from scratch! No crab though. And no gravy. It was a mushroom themed mini thanksgiving. Which we ate while watching the pathetic sf v. baltimore game. LAME LAME LAME.
This morning, I wake up at 7am and get my jeans on. I hustle slowly down to Clement street to buy some gnarled ginger roots. My father and mother told me of an old wives remedy for the BF's cold. I have to hammer the gnarled ginger, simmer on low for an hour, then stir in some dark brown sugar to taste. Actually, this sounds like a delicious rice pudding recipe too.
While on Clement street, I cannot help but buy some dim sum. It's just there. Calling to me. Little packets of shrimp and pork. Savory, glistening bundles. But. Lately the MSG has really killed me. I get this wa-wa-wa headache and dry mouth and suddenly pass out from the MSG. It has made me very wary to eat anything from Clement street that is not a baked bread. Really, it's the only gripe I have with Chinese food. I can control my portions well enough so I don't accidentally on purpose eat my whole day's worth of calories in one meal. But I cannot control my portions so well that I escape the clutches of MSG. In order to accomplish that, I need to eat only 1 type of each dumpling, and no more than 2 overall. That is effing nuts. Especially when considering that each serving comes with 3. Sigh.
This morning, I got some fried shrimp dumplings, fresh out of the fryer. Oh gorgeous juicy fried ball. It was delicious. I snarfed two down before starting the car. And then I ate the 3rd one right before sitting down at the computer. Now, I feel the liquids draining from my mouth in the tell-tale (tale-tell? Tell-tell?) sign of MSG overload. Why must dim sum be so overloaded with MSG as to kill a small Asian girl? Why? I will try to give up dim sum. Really.
This weekend, I will eat cheese and bread and turn into a while man with a hairy belly. That will show the BF.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hello World. Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow.
I'm a little behind the news. Bar results came out. I passed. It was stressful. I almost didn't check the website. My BF ended up checking for me. And the results page was cryptic so he had to read it twice before he was sure it meant anything.
A lot of people I know did not pass. The statistics for this exam are not yet out. But looking at past results, the pass rate has hovered around 50%. It has been even lower for the February bar. This past February, the pass rate was about 48%. The year before that, it was 38%. Rough.
It is a tough exam. My heart goes out to all those that did not pass. Don't give up. Don't talk yourself out of taking the exam in February. I don't know what to say exactly. But I believe in you!
I'm still unemployed. Today, I finished writing a cover letter for a grant. This grant is for people who are volunteering. That would be me. I am still volunteering at a government agency, in the public sector, as an advocate for public safety. That reminds me I need to reword something in that cover letter. The institution that is giving out this grant (my school) is very defense oriented. Therefore I need to align my objective with their goals. Some creative massaging of words. Massage. Massage.
It turns out that I accomplish very little work when I'm at home. Is it the cold? Is it the perpetual distraction of kitty? Or is it something else? I went to the BF's work today and punched out this cover letter. Yesterday I spent the whole day lousing around my house, accomplishing nothing. I did make some bread dough for thanksgiving tomorrow. And played tennis with my father. And bought some groceries. But none of my efforts went towards accomplishing the reason for taking the time off.
For lunch today (yes, it's come to that: describing what I had to eat, and how I ate it) I walked 0.3 miles to a mexican taco shop on Middlefield Road and bought two $1.25 tacos. The total cost came to $2.73. I walked away with a bag of food: two tacos on a plate, a bag of corn chips and a container of salsa. It was more than enough food for me. And the salsa. Was beautiful. It was a bright red color dotted with green flecks of cilantro. There were some translucent onions floating among the red tomato. And the spicy burn came from something I could not see. Invisible spice! The tacos were served on two corn tortillas each. I saw a woman in the back pressing handmade tortillas but I guess my order didn't deserve those. Or I have to ask for it specifically. And I don't speak Spanish AT ALL. The chicken atop the tacos was all white meat, diced. The quality of the meat was very good. I got about 3 oz of chicken total. It was served with a slice of lime and a disc of radish. I ate both tacos which was a bit too much for me because it was 1pm when I ate and I had about 8 oz of greek yogurt immediately prior to the tacos. And 16 oz of hot water.
I have been playing tennis these past few weeks. It's terrific exercise.
I'm a little behind the news. Bar results came out. I passed. It was stressful. I almost didn't check the website. My BF ended up checking for me. And the results page was cryptic so he had to read it twice before he was sure it meant anything.
A lot of people I know did not pass. The statistics for this exam are not yet out. But looking at past results, the pass rate has hovered around 50%. It has been even lower for the February bar. This past February, the pass rate was about 48%. The year before that, it was 38%. Rough.
It is a tough exam. My heart goes out to all those that did not pass. Don't give up. Don't talk yourself out of taking the exam in February. I don't know what to say exactly. But I believe in you!
I'm still unemployed. Today, I finished writing a cover letter for a grant. This grant is for people who are volunteering. That would be me. I am still volunteering at a government agency, in the public sector, as an advocate for public safety. That reminds me I need to reword something in that cover letter. The institution that is giving out this grant (my school) is very defense oriented. Therefore I need to align my objective with their goals. Some creative massaging of words. Massage. Massage.
It turns out that I accomplish very little work when I'm at home. Is it the cold? Is it the perpetual distraction of kitty? Or is it something else? I went to the BF's work today and punched out this cover letter. Yesterday I spent the whole day lousing around my house, accomplishing nothing. I did make some bread dough for thanksgiving tomorrow. And played tennis with my father. And bought some groceries. But none of my efforts went towards accomplishing the reason for taking the time off.
For lunch today (yes, it's come to that: describing what I had to eat, and how I ate it) I walked 0.3 miles to a mexican taco shop on Middlefield Road and bought two $1.25 tacos. The total cost came to $2.73. I walked away with a bag of food: two tacos on a plate, a bag of corn chips and a container of salsa. It was more than enough food for me. And the salsa. Was beautiful. It was a bright red color dotted with green flecks of cilantro. There were some translucent onions floating among the red tomato. And the spicy burn came from something I could not see. Invisible spice! The tacos were served on two corn tortillas each. I saw a woman in the back pressing handmade tortillas but I guess my order didn't deserve those. Or I have to ask for it specifically. And I don't speak Spanish AT ALL. The chicken atop the tacos was all white meat, diced. The quality of the meat was very good. I got about 3 oz of chicken total. It was served with a slice of lime and a disc of radish. I ate both tacos which was a bit too much for me because it was 1pm when I ate and I had about 8 oz of greek yogurt immediately prior to the tacos. And 16 oz of hot water.
I have been playing tennis these past few weeks. It's terrific exercise.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
I got my computer back!
Yes! Apple has not failed me. I dropped off my dead computer on a Tuesday or Wednesday (I forget now, because brain failure is imminent) and by Friday of the same day, it was shipped back to me. From TEXAS! I have my computer back! Just in time to check BAR RESULTS!
There are 3 days until bar results are available. On November 18, 2011 at approximately 6pm, I will be able to access my results. Of course, please allow 45 minutes - 1 hour for the servers to catastrophically CRASH when 9,000 people try to access the website at the same time. The waiting. It drives us crazy. The closet full of post-bar interns at work (myself included) have been reduced to blobby pegs of meat, banging our heads against the wall. We sit and stare at the computer in front of us, occasionally touching the mouse pad, accomplishing not-very-much.
Random thought on BookFace. Some people need to have their mobile bookfacing devices taken away from them. Or they need to twitter. Because there is one person who keeps writing volumes and posting it on his bookface. Volumes of verbal garbage. Before he got his mobile updating device, he was limited to garbage only when he was at his computer. Now, he can garbage all the time. I'm talking about you. You know who you are. You who don't know about this blog because that would mean CATACLYSMIC implosion!
Tomorrow, I am going to back nearly 100 cupcakes for BHC (for work). It's graduation and I thought I'd do something nice for all the participants who have worked so hard towards their mental health and sobriety in various capacities. Also, because baking helps me to blow off steam. It's countdown time to the bar results.
Work has become so comatose that every time someone erroneously or inadvertently brings up the bar, I have to spout random facts in order to change the subject. For instance, my cat treats me the same way no matter how I do on the exam.
In the morning, I will play tennis and then bake.
There are 3 days until bar results are available. On November 18, 2011 at approximately 6pm, I will be able to access my results. Of course, please allow 45 minutes - 1 hour for the servers to catastrophically CRASH when 9,000 people try to access the website at the same time. The waiting. It drives us crazy. The closet full of post-bar interns at work (myself included) have been reduced to blobby pegs of meat, banging our heads against the wall. We sit and stare at the computer in front of us, occasionally touching the mouse pad, accomplishing not-very-much.
Random thought on BookFace. Some people need to have their mobile bookfacing devices taken away from them. Or they need to twitter. Because there is one person who keeps writing volumes and posting it on his bookface. Volumes of verbal garbage. Before he got his mobile updating device, he was limited to garbage only when he was at his computer. Now, he can garbage all the time. I'm talking about you. You know who you are. You who don't know about this blog because that would mean CATACLYSMIC implosion!
Tomorrow, I am going to back nearly 100 cupcakes for BHC (for work). It's graduation and I thought I'd do something nice for all the participants who have worked so hard towards their mental health and sobriety in various capacities. Also, because baking helps me to blow off steam. It's countdown time to the bar results.
Work has become so comatose that every time someone erroneously or inadvertently brings up the bar, I have to spout random facts in order to change the subject. For instance, my cat treats me the same way no matter how I do on the exam.
In the morning, I will play tennis and then bake.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Paying Back Loans of DOOOM
It's about 5.5 months since I graduated from that "learned" institution. It is about time to face that really big horrible elephant in the room: STUDENT LOANS. The really tricky thing about student loans is that when you first receive them, in your first tender year of school, they NEVER GIVE YOU THE SUM. The big sum. The sum that you will be looking at when you finish school. The one that you will be happily paying back for the next 30 years of your life. More like my life. If there was a rule that a person could not die until they paid back everything they owe, I would LIVE FOREVER.
On top of the impending student loan due date, my computer is broken. Yes. The brain of my computer is fried. At first I thought it was the hard drive. I was a little scared that I would lose all of my precious data. All 60 gigabytes. Actually, I have no precious data. Some of my data is rather dear to me. But, I'm not going to have a heart attack over loss of data. Data loss happened in college a few times, and I stopped having coronaries over it. Alright, I admit, I had a few sleepless nights this week when I worried about the fate of my computer. And it did not feel good. Life is already stressful, I didn't need to add on anticipated stress. Most of my worry had to do with the cost of replacement. Apple is not known for being budget-conscious. Or wallet-friendly. I was afraid that the cost of repairing my old computer would be the same or very close to the cost of a new computer. Sigh. Technology moves so fast.
It turns out that my computer was not suffering from a malfunctioning hard drive. Instead, it's the logic board. The brains of the computer. Basically, when I buy an Apply laptop, I'm buying the logic board. It is the meat of the computer. And it is dead. The replacement part is about $900. (Spits water out all over the monitor at this news). Yikes! Luckily Apple has this "flat rate" repair for $310 (excluding water damage). Wheew. I feel like $300 is a reasonable amount to pay to repair a perfectly good 4 year old computer. Yes, when I first got it, I thought I was going to be a photographer. Photoshop. Magic. Now, the most processing power I require is to run OpenOffice. And occasionally Word. But I try not to summon that evil djinn too often.
The weather has turned really cold these past two days. Cold and rainy. Yesterday, I re-weatherproofed my bedroom window. Does this mean that winter is really here? It's going to be rain and wind and cold from now on? More so than usual? My frugal nature (and sensitive skin) prevents me from turning on the little electric heater in my room except in dire circumstances. Occasionally, my wrists hurt from the cold and then I have to put on gloves or turn on the heater. I have been known to walk around looking like a bag lady, all bundled up.
It looks like the bag lady is going make a comeback. Now, hand me my woolies.
On top of the impending student loan due date, my computer is broken. Yes. The brain of my computer is fried. At first I thought it was the hard drive. I was a little scared that I would lose all of my precious data. All 60 gigabytes. Actually, I have no precious data. Some of my data is rather dear to me. But, I'm not going to have a heart attack over loss of data. Data loss happened in college a few times, and I stopped having coronaries over it. Alright, I admit, I had a few sleepless nights this week when I worried about the fate of my computer. And it did not feel good. Life is already stressful, I didn't need to add on anticipated stress. Most of my worry had to do with the cost of replacement. Apple is not known for being budget-conscious. Or wallet-friendly. I was afraid that the cost of repairing my old computer would be the same or very close to the cost of a new computer. Sigh. Technology moves so fast.
It turns out that my computer was not suffering from a malfunctioning hard drive. Instead, it's the logic board. The brains of the computer. Basically, when I buy an Apply laptop, I'm buying the logic board. It is the meat of the computer. And it is dead. The replacement part is about $900. (Spits water out all over the monitor at this news). Yikes! Luckily Apple has this "flat rate" repair for $310 (excluding water damage). Wheew. I feel like $300 is a reasonable amount to pay to repair a perfectly good 4 year old computer. Yes, when I first got it, I thought I was going to be a photographer. Photoshop. Magic. Now, the most processing power I require is to run OpenOffice. And occasionally Word. But I try not to summon that evil djinn too often.
The weather has turned really cold these past two days. Cold and rainy. Yesterday, I re-weatherproofed my bedroom window. Does this mean that winter is really here? It's going to be rain and wind and cold from now on? More so than usual? My frugal nature (and sensitive skin) prevents me from turning on the little electric heater in my room except in dire circumstances. Occasionally, my wrists hurt from the cold and then I have to put on gloves or turn on the heater. I have been known to walk around looking like a bag lady, all bundled up.
It looks like the bag lady is going make a comeback. Now, hand me my woolies.
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